Chapter 91: Kidnap and Rescue

Mark

Something was wrong.

I saw Lucas go flying through the house and out the front door without bothering to close it. Just before that, Geck, Jana, and two other security staff had hurried through every part of the living room and moved outside as they surveyed the patio, pool, gazebo, and then ran down the steps toward the beach. Each of them had binoculars and I noted the open handguns in their normally hidden holsters. I glanced around and tried to guess what they were looking for. Marcia came through to the patio after having gone around the outside of the house. She’d obviously been involved in whatever the security issue was.

Lucas came back at a near run, and gestured to me. I’d been lying on a chaise nicely sandwiched between Kate and Sheila, but I had sat up at the hint of trouble. We hadn’t been doing anything except enjoying each other’s presence. I slipped off the chaise and moved into the house, tying a towel around my waist. Lucas said, “I think you’d better get dressed. We have a problem.”

“The problem is... ?”

“Izzy’s missing. We can’t find her on the property and we checked the roads in case she went for a run and slipped past us. She’s been pretty good about having one of us go with her. I have three agents on the way to Christiansted right now to see if he can spot her. The police are on their way here. The last time any of the security staff saw her was this morning about nine o’clock at breakfast. About two hours ago, she carried her dishes inside the house, and now we can’t locate her.”

I cursed a blue streak and then found my swimsuit, and slipped into that, some flip-flops, and an island shirt. I warned the girls on the patio about the situation and eminent arrival of the police.

Just as I finished I heard voices in the living room. I walked in to find Lucas and three uniformed officers of the St. Croix. Unsurprisingly, given the nature of the island, they were all black – two men and one woman. They also looked to be in superior physical condition and not the type to be argued with under any circumstances.

One of them stepped forward, “Mr. Worthington, I am Captain Javier Huston; with me is Lieutenant Mary Hanard, and Detective Preston Cook. Mr. Lucas has long been in contact with us regarding your travels in and out of the island, for which we are grateful. Now, it seems our services are badly needed as one of your family has disappeared.” He didn’t seem to blink an eye, and I figured he well knew about our plural polyamorous family.

I nodded and said a few platitudes. I didn’t know what else to say except ‘Find her.’ I tried to rack my brain regarding where she might have gone but nothing came to mind.

Lucas was obviously in control, such as it was, on behalf of the family. Periodically, one of the other security staff would come into the room and shake their head, thereby indicating that another avenue of search had turned up nothing about Izzy’s presence. In the distance, I heard voices shouting her name.

Lucas had electronic dossiers on each of us for just this situation. He’d already communicated several recent pictures and a complete description of Isabella Mendosa to the U.S. Virgin Islands Police Department. They in turn covered the airports and major ports. Accordingly, a missing person report was filed. Given the nature of the family and my status, one operating assumption was that she had been kidnapped and was being held for ransom, although we had received no demands at that point.

Elsa and Sheila slipped into the room and stood at the side listening to our conversation. They’d both put on robes that covered their nudity. Marcia appeared next similarly attired. Their faces were long but severe.

I turned to Elsa, “Could you assemble the family outside. Dressed please. We are missing Izzy and need to question everyone.”

A scramble took place and five minutes later I led the three officers to the patio where everyone had assembled. Lucas set the stage and asked if anyone had seen or talked to Izzy regarding her plans. No one could volunteer anything of note except what Lucas already knew about her presence that morning. Melanie thought she’d had her camera with her.

Elsa and Cindy soon appeared dressed more conservatively in sport clothes that included matching paisley vests. The vests were bulletproof, and under them they each carried their Glock 30. The eyes of Captain Huston rose. Elsa said quietly, “We have all the requisite permits, sir; and we know what we’re doing.”

He smiled a toothy grin amplified by his brilliant white teeth against his black complexion, “I expect you do, Miss and Miss Conners. I know about your exploits a few years ago when you dispatched a man who attacked you, probably with those very weapons. I was sorry to hear that you too suffered a damaging wound that took a long time to heal. You are always welcome here with your discriminating skills.” The obvious respect between the girls and the police had been instantly established. There were slight bows in both directions.

After some further discussion, Captain Huston stood, “We are accomplishing little by sitting here. We will return to duty. As you may know the population of this island is about fifty thousand. We know many of those who have fantasies about get-rich-quick schemes, such as holding a young woman for ransom. We will start to make the rounds to determine what people in our underground are hearing about such a scheme or attempt. We will be in touch again around the dinner hour or sooner if there is any news.”

I looked at the others. Several of the girls were crying. Everyone had a long face. Elsa and Cindy were having a serious talk together, and I guessed that they were plotting some kind of ‘Go get her’ scheme of their own. I’d have to remind them later to let the police and our security team do their work and not to intervene with some kind of vigilante action.

I turned to Lucas, “How did you discover that Izzy was missing?”

He gave a wan smile. “Several times a day we do a headcount on all of you to alert us to just this kind of situation. The mid morning headcount turned up one short. We verified each of you were present and then looked for Izzy – obvious places first, and then the not so obvious ones. We went through every inch of this villa and then of the property and the beach. We fanned out from there checking the roads for bicyclists, joggers, and then even further up the beach. All the watercraft were accounted for, so she didn’t go sailing. She’s a good swimmer and there’s no sign of beach activity. We do have two boats in the water. Izzy is one of the people in your group that is exceptional in letting us know where she’s going, so this is totally unexpected and out of character for her. All that prompted us to call Javier and his department.”

“Was anybody else here today ... or last night? You have the building wired for security video; did that show anything?”

“We had several vendors and service people in this morning, and Geck is going through the security recordings now.”

Jana came into the room at a run. She stopped abruptly when she saw Lucas and me. “We’ve heard from her abductors,” she said in an anxious tone. “I notified the police.”

Lucas and I went to her. “What happened?”

“An old junk car raced past the entrance – no license plates. Brent was on the gate. They tossed out a brick with a note tied around it with rubber bands. They want two million dollars in small bills delivered at five this afternoon at Pirate’s Point, and of course they don’t want the police involved. The note included a picture of Izzy tied up and gagged.”

Jana hesitated and added, “We also think we know what happened from the front security cam. Izzy was taking close-up pictures of some of the exotic flowers around the front of the villa. She must have wandered out onto the road to see what she could find out there. We suspect that’s where she was abducted. Our video of the entrance shows her meandering around that area with her camera in hand, going out of sight on the roadway, and then returning several times as she poked at the various flowers looking for what must have been a good photography angle. The last time she didn’t return. The same car could be seen flashing past the villa’s entrance at one point just after that.”

The police were back in thirty minutes. They collected the brick, note, and photograph, which had been carefully preserved without adding fingerprints by my security staff. They described Pirate’s Point as an isolated promontory and beach with a small parking area that was on the north side of the island. Tourists and locals rarely used the area because of its relatively hidden location.

The ransom note had further specified that only one woman not from the police department was to drop off the money, and that the place would be watched to be sure no police or other interference was involved. Nothing had been said about exchanging Izzy at that point.

By the time the police arrived at the villa that second time, I had already ordered up two million dollars in twenties. It was being flown down by private jet from Miami, the closest place we could find a bank with that kind of cash on hand.

Lucas, Captain Huston, me, and several of the women sat and talked about what to do.

Elsa and Cindy soaked up various summaries of the situation. Captain Huston said that this whole situation indicated a bunch of rank amateurs who were trying to capitalize on an opportunity by ransoming someone they found in front of an expensive villa. He didn’t think they were too bright, or that they had a well-planned strategy for following through on their find. We all prayed for Izzy’s well being.

After listening, Elsa spoke authoritatively about how Cindy and she thought the drop should go. Looking up from her cell phone, she said, “Two million dollars in twenty-dollar bills weighs more than a hundred pounds. Our kidnappers can’t expect one woman to carry that load, so when two of us show up, that’ll give us an advantage. Cindy and I should be the delivery team for several reasons: first, we are in physical shape to each carry fifty pounds of cash; and second, we can go in armed and know how to handle ourselves. We can also dress up so we don’t look threatening.”

Lucas, Huston, and I protested that all that would happen would be that they’d end up kidnapped, and that the requested ransom would go up by four million. The conversation bounced back and forth for over an hour, but every idea for handling the situation and finding Izzy seemed frustrated by some major kink in our armor.

The money arrived at the villa at four o’clock by armed guard. We didn’t pay too much attention to the suitcases of cash, but Elsa and Cindy did. They had everything unpacked and had started to stuff the packets of money into two large backpacks they’d had Stacy run into town to purchase. The police added into the packs some exploding dye markers that would taint the money with ink visible with an ultraviolet light.

Huston had spent hours on the phone, but there was nothing significant to report. He figured that somebody in a boat would come ashore at Pirate’s Point to get the money. There was little chance of observation in the area because of the open and barren nature of the land for almost a mile in every direction from the point.

He’d ordered up a couple of high-speed police boats to loiter a ways offshore but not near the point. He also stationed police vehicles on each of the five roads – paved and unpaved – that converged on the promontory. With great reluctance he’d capitulated to allowing Elsa and Cindy to deliver the backpacks of money.

All this seemed to be happening so fast. There wasn’t a whole lot of time to strategize solutions or react given the five o’clock deadline.

Elsa

Cindy and I were ready to start a house-by-house search of the entire island of fifty thousand inhabitants. We would find Izzy no matter what it took. Our sisters were equally as angry that she’d been abducted; however, Cindy and I were the only two besides Marcia who had viable skills to cope with the situation – martial arts, urban survival, and weaponry. Melanie also had some handgun skills, but without a target there wasn’t much to do.

Somehow we wore down Mark first. He caved in during the early afternoon about us being the two delivery women for the bags of money. Lucas was a little harder to convince, and Captain Huston last. He wanted the police involved, but couldn’t offer up any policewomen that weren’t widely known on the island. Further, he had no white officers on his police force, so any black would probably be suspect. The options got narrower until he reluctantly agreed that Cindy and I would go.